My neighbor has a 2004 Chevy Duramax. It has oversized tires on it. The steering fucking sucks. It has alot of play in it. The tie rods have already been replaced once. He was looking at upgrading them to either Heavy Duty or Extreme Duty. I have heard alot of bad feedback about Cognito Heavy Duty Tie Rods. Then, I was told that if you are going to upgrade the tie rods, you also should upgrade the steering brace, and get the Pitman/Idler arm kit or brace. Is this true? Have you had any experience with Cognito? Or Rare parts? Of course good quality parts, but not costing an arm or a leg.
I don't have first hand experience with Cognito products but most of the people on truck forums that I have been on that use their products seem to be less than impressed. I've owned several trucks and jeeps that I have lifted and faster wear on front end parts is just something that comes with larger tires. Bigger tie rods with high quality joints would definitely help. Without knowing what size tire the truck has, for general street driving I would think just HD tie-rods would be all that is needed. There are stronger pitman and idler arms available but they do get pretty expensive, I wouldn't think they would be needed unless you're running say a 40"+ tire or off-roading. Quality aftermarket stuff for cars and trucks always comes at a premium price. Another good site is http://www.fullsizechevy.com
If it is a lift truck with big tires(depending on what you mean by oversized) on it. Tell him to get use to lots of wear. The bigger you go, the quicker stuff wears out.
Tell him to stop being a pussy and put a solid axle under the front end. Or, head down to Kragen/Napa/etc and buy the "Lifetime Warranty" parts and just plan on replacing them every year or two.
WHAT HE SAID! The fans aren't supposed to turn on immediately (Unless the engine is warmed up, and/or if the A/C is on. Read on). They stay off initially to allow the engine to reach operating temperature. Drive the car around your neighborhood/ general area (while watching the temperature gauge like a hawk) until the gauge says that the engine is warmed up (approximately 180-220 degrees Farenheit), and open up the hood and see if the fan(s) are turning. If they aren't on, turn on the air-conditioner. If they don't turn on then, you've got a problem (which I think you established; but I wanted to make sure). Edit: FEEL if the fans are turning! Just because you can see the fans turning, that doesn't mean they are doing all the work that they should. If you can feel a good stream of air blowing on your hand 2-2 1/2 feet away from the fan, then it is probably working like it should. (I'll be the first to admit that this is a really subjective measurement, but I'm going to guess that you don't have much use for amperage measurements on the wires going to the motors.) If the fans will not turn on under those circumstances, I'd do a basic check of the fan motor(s) themselves. What you would have to do is get a couple of pieces of wire with "Alligator clips" on the ends (or get a helper to hold stripped ends of wire to the battery), and connect the ends of the clips to the battery terminals. Then disconnect the fan motor connector(s), and connect the wires to the battery. If it doesn't turn on, your fan motor is probably dead.
Here's the first of my door panels I'm making for my Trans Am (I'm doing one side at a time). I used 1/8" thick fiber-board for the main backing material, with two layers of 1/4" foam rubber for padding. I covered the whole deal with diamond-tread printed vinyl that I got from a local upholstry/fabric shop. Yes, I had to cut into the door to get the speaker to fit ('82-'92 Firebirds/Camaros never had speakers in the doors). Notice the tweeter in the valence panel by the upper handle mount. It was a natural fit. I'll post more pictures as I get the other side done.
Just going through files and sorting shit on the computer, and found this picture. It was taken 4 years ago or so, a rock slide came down in front of him, and he slowed down enough that he didn't completely kill himself.
A couple months back, for my 25th birthday, I bought my first car, a used 2008 VW R32. http://www.edmunds.com/volkswagen/r32/2008/ For those not familiar with VW's, its only released in the US once every couple years, badged, and loaded with all the amenities you could think of (leather, heated seats, sunroof, nav, etc). The 04 and the 08 both come with the VW version of the V6, the VR6, the 08 topping out at about 250hp, as well as all-wheel drive. Its a sweet freaking ride, and being that I'm in the beginning stages of being a car nut, having a daily driver that happens to be numbered (VW only made 5000, each one has a number on the wheel) is pretty badass. However, its used. And the VR6 sucks at fuel efficiency. This new model year (2012), VW is coming out with the newest version of the R. This one will be a turbo'd 4 pushing a speculative 270hp, still with the AWD, leather trim, and all other luxury accouterments. Being that this new one is coming out around the same time I should be getting my quarterly and annual bonuses, I came up with a spectacular plan to trade the 08 in and come out even on that and lay down a serious down payment on the new R. Every one I've talked to (girlfriend [soon to be fiance, so her opinion unfortunately matters] and parents) don't see the brilliance in this idea. Am I dumb...or are they? To me, offloading an older car with 50k mi at the peak of its trade-in (the release of the turbo 4 R should drive prices of the older vr6 Rs to at least keep the depreciation at a minimum) at an even trade and financing about 15-20k on a brand new car just makes sense- in terms of insurance, maintenance, warranties, gas mileage, etc. Please tell me if I'm mistaken, but it seems like a good deal. Also- pros/cons trading a v6 for a turbo 4. I know in a lot of cases there can be more maintenance considering wear and tear on turbos. If you were in your mid-20s, had about 12-15k to throw down on a down payment and could handle reasonable monthly payments, what would you go after if not the new VW R? I'm open to suggestions, but I really love the R.
Usually I let a model hit for a year or two before I buy, but because this vehicle is using the tried and true 2.0T from VW I wouldn't let that worry me. I most certainly would try to dump your VR6 R32 because with the motor change you have an outdated old dog unlike the STi which has kept the same motor package and updated styling and handling. Your R32 is probably worth the most it will be right now. It's a tough market for selling used cars though because all of the manufacturers are offering ridiculous financing to get buyers in new cars. With a $15k down payment you'll be into this for another $18k or so and have a brand new ride. Check out the Subaru STi.
So on my car search, I stopped by the Hyundai dealership yesterday. Took a test drive on the new Accent, with the six speed manual transmission. Pretty sweet ride: great brakes, good handling, good-looking, lots of neat little features (i.e. there's a display in the instrument cluster telling you when to shift), and enough passenger and cargo room to compete with any compact car, nevermind sub-compacts - I can't even fit in the back of a Fiesta, but there's enough room in the Accent for my 6'2" self to adjust the driver's seat to a comfortable driving position and then sit in the seat behind it with adequate legroom and headroom. And the fuel efficiency is pretty good at 60 mpg highway (although of course I'll see less in real life). And I can get it loaded to the gills - sunroof, A/C, bluetooth, alloy rims, leather on the steering wheel and shifter - for a hair over $21K out the door, and about 2K less with a few less amenities. So far as I can tell, it's got all of its competition beat on virtually every metric, except perhaps performance. A used Mazda 3 with all of those features might cost a bit less, but not much, and it's a bit of a fuel guzzler with those specs. And the Accent beats the shit out of the Versa. My only qualms would be that it's a brand new model year, so you run the risk of recalls and improvements in the next model years might hurt the resale value a bit, and I'm not sure that Hyundai has yet set a solid record for long-term reliability. But they've made leaps and bounds over the last few years, and it comes with a better warranty than the other manufacturers, 5 years / 100K km. For the minor downsides that I see, it's a great little car at a great price. Anyone have any thoughts?
It doesn't matter who makes the car, i would almost never buy one with a brand new model year. That said, Hyundai have pretty good reilablity, my parents have an 08 Sante Fe and love it.
The tach in my car doesn't move as fast as the speedo does in the GT. 70-215mph...Jesus. In lieu of YouTube tags working
In addition to what Dixie said, if the fan does turn on upon doing this test, then it is a bad relay or fan switch. This was the case on my brothers Jeep Grand Cherokee.
The market for used R's is kind of special, as they tend to hold their value way more than regular VWs. Back in '08 when the mkV R came out, mkIVs were still going for $18-20K locally. The VR6 is actually a very stout engine. The newer 4-bangers, on the other hand, have had mixed results (bad cam followers, etc). Of course you will get better gas mileage, especially in daily driving where you keep out of boost, but you do give up the simplicity of a naturally aspirated engine. Or, if you're an idiot and want to TOTALLY kill your gas mileage, do what I did slap a turbo on your VR6. Nothing screams practicality like getting 10mpg in light city driving. What are your requirements for a car? If you need AWD, the STI suggestion above may not be bad. Or if you don't want to deal with the insurance premiums and don't need the 325hp (in '09 at least), you could get the '09 WRX at 265hp that has all of the bugs from the previous year worked out.
One of my co-workers asked my opinion on a car purchase, and I immediately thought to ask you guys. She's got a relatively new Mercedes that she is very happy with as her primary car. The issue is that she drives a very short distance (< 10 mins) to the Metro each day, and parks on the street, and she doesn't really want to do that to the Benz. So...she wants a cheap, relatively reliable used car that she can not care about dings and dents, but that has cargo room. I was suggesting a used CRV or Rav4 with about 100k miles on it, since I see a lot of those still driving around, or maybe a used Golf, as I seem to recall seeing that VWs will run into the ground. Any suggestions are much appreciated.
I feel like parts for the VW would be more expensive once stuff started going wrong, but someone else with more knowledge about them can tell you more about that. She might want to try looking into a used Toyota Camry. My little sister has a 2003 and I was really surprised how much stuff you can put in those cars when we were moving her back into college--the trunk is huge. It also gets good gas mileage, too.
VW's from the late 90's-mid 2000's are notorious for electrical problems and cheap brittle plastic parts. I would suggest a civic hatchback. They are relatively cheap, good on gas and mechanically almost indestructible. If she needs more cargo room, a honda or toyota suv would probably be her best bet.
Twenty-one thousand dollars for a manual Accent?! Are you in Canada, or am I just behind the times (again)?
No, I'm in Canada. Car prices here are always higher here. Something about being a small country with a population 10% that of the United States.